SearchCap: The Day In Search, September 5, 2007

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.

From Search Engine Land:

• Facebook Opens Profiles To Tap Into Google Traffic, While Google Grabs Facebook’s News Feed Idea
  Google is getting a bit more like Facebook by enabling a Facebook-style news feed within its Orkut social networking site, while the king of the walled gardens Facebook acknowledges in actions (rather than words) that it really can’t go it alone without search engines like Google, as it prepares to…
• Google Adds Three Features To Website Optimizer
  The Inside AdWords blog announced three new features for Website Optimizer. The features include: A method of creating A/B testing experiments Easy access to Website Optimizer within My Client Center Sorting experiments by most recent and the ability to delete experiments…
• CallGenie and R.H. Donnelley Launch Local Voice Search
  Yellow pages publisher R.H. Donnelley (RHD), which recently acquired Business.com and owns search marketing firm LocalLaunch, is testing a new voice local mobile search product, 1-800-CallDex, in four U.S. markets: Denver, Phoenix, Spokane (WA) and Tucson. It offers a suite of services powered by speech and local mobile search enabler…
• Japan Backing Device-Specific Search Tech To Compete With Google
  Japan to fight Google search dominance from the Financial Times covers Japan’s continuing efforts to subsidize new generation search technologies tied to gadgets and hardware, in part to be competitive against US-based search companies like Google. From the report: The Japanese project is comprised of 10 partnerships, each tasked with…
• More Proof Of The Existence Of Google’s GDrive
  Tony Ruscoe discovered more signs that the GDrive, a long-rumored storage service from Google, actually exists. After Tony tried messing around with some URL parameters, he stumbled upon a screen that looked like this: Image from Google Blogoscoped…
• Microsoft To Use Inrix Traffic Prediction Data Across Network
  Microsoft, which helped develop the technology behind traffic data provider Inrix and then spun it out, has now adopted the company’s services to provide traffic data and predictions across a range of Microsoft online and mobile properties including Virtual Earth and Live Local. Live Local had been using data from…
• All I Really Need To Know About Search Marketing I Learned In Kindergarten
  All I really need to know about search engine marketing I learned in kindergarten. Or something like that. The goal of search engine marketing is to get your pages to show up when target customers make relevant searches. As search engines get better at finding relevant content and preventing…
• Search Marketing & Web Page Download Speed
  I spent last week at Family Camp in Maine. They had an awesome 1920’s Arts & Crafts style lodge where we could get online after the kids went to bed. Unfortunately, the camp’s Linksys router was fried by a lightning strike. My only other option was Blackberry-modem. Verizon’s NationalAccess plan…
• No, Junior, You Can’t Be Our SEO Team Leader (Yet)
  Let’s face it: sometimes politics plays a huge role in the success—or failure—of your search marketing efforts. For example, sometimes the information technology group is an obstacle and doesn’t want to play nice in the sandbox. To get them on-board and ready to play with the team requires tact…

Search News From Around The Web:

Business Issues

• China content sites key for Google, San Jose Mercury News
• Former Yahoo exec takes Podbridge helm, San Jose Business Journal
• Breaking! Google Closes on Space at Chelsea Market, The New York Observer
• Judge: Google can file anti-Microsoft antitrust brief, News.com

Conferences

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Get Inside a Helicopter in Google Earth, Google Earth Blog
• NASA and Internet Archive Make Announcement, ResourceShelf
• Branson hopes to use Google Earth to find Fossett – Yahoo! News, Reuters

Link Building

Paid Search & Contextual

• Scheduled Maintenance – Friday September 7th 2007, adCenter Blog
• AdWords system maintenance on September 8, Inside AdWords
• Inside AdSense launches in Chinese, Inside AdSense
• Mastering Yahoo Panama, Search Engine Watch Blog

Searching

• ‘Live search engine’ launches in beta, E-Consultancy
• AOL co-founder launches site for students’ mental health, Reuters
• Cuill: Super Stealth Search Engine; Google Has Definitely Noticed, TechCrunch
• Some Recent Google Papers on Usability and User Testing, SEO By The Sea
• Startup Offers Privacy For Sale — But Is Anyone Buying?, Wired

SEM Industry

• (Almost) Live From SES San Jose, Traffick
• How Search Will Save Online Advertising… Again!, Search Engine Watch
• Search Engine College is Seeking Tutors, Search Engine College
• Didit Ranked No. 137 on Inc. Magazine’s List of America’s 500 Fastest-Growing Private Companies, Press Release
• Should Webmasters & SEOs Contact Matt Cutts of Google?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Tamar Weinberg, Tech-Savvy Jewess, Jewess

SEO & SEM

• Google Fueling Technorati Blog Spamming : Wanda Nara Example, Search Engine Journal
• Evaluating Client Search Marketing Readiness, Online Marketing Blog
• Website Optimizer Gets an Update, Google Analytics Blog
• Publicity & Penalties, SEO Book
• How To Get More Pages Indexed With Nofollow, SEO Fast Start
• Yahoo Stop Supporting the No Yahoo Directory Tag?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google Webmaster Link Tool September 2007 Update, Search Engine Roundtable
• Local SEO with Event Promotion, Online Marketing Blog

Social Media

• Dopplr, Social Network for World Travelers, Gets A-List Seed Funding, TechCrunch
• Why So Many Want to Create Facebook Applications, Wall Street Journal
• Why You Should Embrace the New Social Media News Release, Search Engine Guide
• Nokia bets on mobile social communities, Reuters
• Googlers Get Kinky On Wikipedia, TechCrunch
• Like Flickr, Yahoo! Unites MyBlogLog With a Single Login, Digital Inspiration
• When Data Repositories Open Up, So Do Possibilities for Viral Content, SEOmoz

Video, Music & Image Search

• Video Search Optimization, Reality SEO

Web Analytics

• 7 Tips for High Value Analytics, Search Engine Watch
• Comparing Web Analytics Packages, Search Engine Watch

Hot Items From Sphinn, Our Social News Sharing Site:

• StumbleUpon Phenomenon : An In Depth Look At A Social Networking Giant
• Facebook Likes SEO Too, To Open Profiles To Search Engines
• Googlers Get Kinky On Wikipedia
• Matt Cutts’ Porn Flakes, Larryos, Raisin Brin & More Google Cereal
• Are you Branding Yourself? SES Speaker Branding, Part II
• How To Get More Pages Indexed With Nofollow
• Facebook Has a Google Penalty?
• SEO Isn’t That Hard
• Why David Airey is a marketing genius
• Top 21 Signs You Need a Break From SEO (2007 version)